Blue Lights
by korralations
Summary: One-Shot. Korra experiences the Avatar State over the loss of someone she never knew she loved. T for content and themes.


Korra grins as Naga settles into her overstuffed bed at Tenzin's home, and satisfied with her polar bear dog's position, heads toward the Airbender Island Temple.

Stupid, stupid Mondays. She gets weekends off, but no, Tenzin has to have her come in bright and early on Monday mornings for some good old fashioned airbending _fun_.

The sun is bright, a few white clouds drifting by. Almost as white as the snow back home. She laughs to herself. Nah. Nothing's as perfect as the snow down south.

The door to the Temple swings open with a solid push, and she scans the lobby for Tenzin. Hm. Not up yet.

Of _course_ he would do that - make her get up early and then not offer the same courtesy.

"Sifu Tenzin!" she calls. "If you're just doing this to make me angr…" her voice trails off as she notices a paper, ends loosely fluttering in the breeze rolling through the open door, barely stuck to the floor by a small rock placed on its center.

The paper is a nice weight in her hands as she picks it up and flips it over.

_My mother is dead. We had to rush to the Southern Water Tribe right away. Hope you understand. ~Tenzin_

The paper flitters between her fingers as Korra stares blankly at it.

She had only really talked to Katara a few times. To train, to ask questions about Aang, then when leaving. She feels a quiet sadness for the passing of an old friend, and she rereads the letter.

_Dead._

Something stirs inside of Korra, and all of the melancholy subtleties she had felt vanished. Vanishes as if into thin air, and Korra glances around.

Something is wrong. She knows it. Something is very wrong.

Then, a wholeheartedly soul-tearing anger, a depth worthy of filling chasms, an amount of caring she didn't know she possessed.

No. Katara can't be dead. Korra loves her. She backs away, as if to back away from herself. She feels as if she is tearing herself apart, and a breeze blows her hair into her face. She ignores it.

A blinding light spills in front of her, and everything disappears into a haze of blue glowing.

She feels her feet lift off the ground, and she attempts to jerk herself back down. Her arms move with a fluidity she's never known before, and Korra tries to scream. Her body is not under her control, and for the first time in her life, she is wholeheartedly frightened.

"Katara!" she bellows, and the voice is not her own. Pain is raw, and she hurts. Her heart hurts, her stomach tangles itself into knots. Her body tears in half with another "NO!"

Her arms are flung outward, and any form of conscious decisions Korra had harbored recede to an obscure corner of her mind, seeking whatever refuge they could manage. Air rips the wall hangings off, and she spins higher in the Temple, passing rows and rows of countless artifacts. With each level, a furious gust of air is blown out, and everything shatters in her wake.

"KATARA!" that voice yells again, the one that's not quite hers. With a smash, she plummets through the roof of the Temple, and her arms rise. The clouds block out the sun, moisture gathering and exploding with an audible _boom_.

Another boom. A cadence begins to form, one boom after another, lightning splitting the sky, and the part of her mind that Korra still holds sway over cries for a cease fire.

Lightning strikes Republic City's highest skyscraper miles away, and the bay waters roar to engulf the bridge.

"NO!" she bellows again, and with a downward swipe, the earth underneath the sea surges up, cutting through the blue waters.

"No… Katara…" she whispers, and before she can stop it, her body is plummeting to the ground. She feels the wind whistling around her billowing clothing, feels the chill, and with all the energy she can muster, she fire bends to the ground slowly, collapsing on the sidewalk in front of the Temple.

White stone lies in heaps around her, hangings detailing every history of the airbenders in tatters, all soaked in water. Sirens ring vaguely from the far-off Republic City, and Korra attempts to stumble to her feet.

She feels a pit in her stomach at the thought of Katara being gone, one she can't explain.

Her aching body falls to the ground, and she curls into a ball, sobbing. She trembles, her muscles too weak to do anything.

She is a monster, an unbridled destruction machine, and she'd just terrorized people and destroyed what had taken so long to build.

Korra hugs her knees, wishing she could escape herself. She hears footsteps and tries to tell them to leave. She doesn't want other people. She doesn't even want herself.

A gentle whine, and then Naga's warm body curls around Korra's, and Korra lets herself cry into her warm fur.

In days to come, she will find herself fearing blue lights, and anxiously hoping that they would never find her again


End file.
